Summary: | This thesis explores the extent to which the pedagogical intentions of a social science subject introductory workshop at an International Baccalaureate (IB) Diploma school align with the participating students’ experienced learning. The purpose is to gain an in-depth understanding of how well the IB faculty were able to implement the IB’s Approaches to Learning (ATL), a comprehensive pedagogical initiative. The research is guided by the question of the extent to which the workshop’s intended learning outcomes, constructed by the social science faculty at the particular IB school in focus, correspond with the perceived learning experienced by the students attending the workshop. The study initially introduces a theoretical framework including philosophy of the IB and the ATL initiative. It also describes the school setting and the teacher and student participants. Secondly, previous research is presented in order to situate the study in an academic context. Furthermore, the thesis discusses and evaluates the methods used. The results of the study indicate that the participating students’ understanding of the social science subjects’ interdisciplinary nature aligns well with the teachers’ intentions, and that the students are able to grasp and critically engage with the workshop’s focus on global issues in a local context. However, student lack understanding of the relationship between social science theories and the workshop’s case study which indicate a lack of implementation of the IB:s core pedagogical approach.
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